Unconscious
by TheWeatherOutside
Summary: Sequel to Shackled. Virgil gets worried when there's no sign of Gordon, so he goes investigating. (Day 10 of Whumptober - Unconscious)


Virgil had packed away all of the tools and equipment that they had used on the rescue. He was now leant against the wall of the open module, his arms crossed as he waited for Gordon to emerge from the cave.

He had been watching the cave's entrance for what felt like quite a while now, and still there was no sign of Gordon. He had packed everything away quicker than he thought he would, so he gave Gordon the benefit of the doubt as it would take him a bit longer to collect the explorers. But if they were as close to the exit as John had said, Gordon should be back by now. The only reason that Virgil could think of as to why Gordon was taking his time, was that something had been blocking his way into the cave. Although, Gordon would have likely told Virgil of his hold up, or come back for some extra equipment.

There was a chance that Gordon was too wrapped up in his task that he had forgotten to contact Virgil, but that thought didn't stop Virgil from growing uneasy at the lack of communication from Gordon. Virgil lifted his hand to tap where his comms laid in his sash, thinking that he should just contact Gordon himself, but right as his finger touched the IR logo, he was almost knocked off his feet as the ground under him began to shake.

Virgil steadied himself against the wall of TB2's module and quickly cast his gaze over to where the caves were.

His heart seemed to stop as dust was blown out of the front of the cave and small rocks tumbled to the floor as the cave threatened to collapse again.

_Gordon._

Virgil didn't even hesitate as bolted towards the cave and frantically contacted John on the way.

"John-" He began as soon as they'd connected, but it seemed John knew exactly what he was going to say.

"The cave's collapsed again. However, this time I could find the source of it. Seems like it was some sort of explosive."

Virgil opened his mouth to say something, but John beat him to it again.

"Gordon's alright. I can still read his life sign. Although, I can't see anyone else's."

Virgil frowned, worried at what that could mean. "Do you think…"

"No. They disappeared _before_ the explosion." Even though Virgil couldn't see John, he could imagine that his eyebrows were furrowed as he watched the screens around him. "It seems as if they started to head off into another direction before they disappeared altogether."

Virgil had already reached the cave and was already quickly moving through the tunnels to where his brother would be. John had already sent him the coordinates as soon as Virgil entered the cave, and sure enough Gordon's life sign was the only one that showed up.

It didn't take him long before Virgil found the tunnel that lead down towards Gordon's location. However, he was stopped short as he came face to face with a crumpled wall that met him halfway down the tunnel.

"I can't get to him. The cave's collapsed. I'll need to go back to get the Mole, do you think the cave will be stable enough for that?" Virgil gave the collapsed wall a quick analysis to see how intact it seemed. He didn't want to just drill into it if it meant that more of the cave would collapse onto him, but anything else would take a lot more time to get through to his brother.

"It seems like it should stay together long enough for you to get in and out. Although, we don't know what those explosives were or if there are any more waiting to go off. Whatever you do, you should be quick- and careful."

"FAB." Virgil gave a curt nod as he turned and hurried back to TB2. Although, it wasn't as if John could see him nod. It was more for himself as he put together a plan in his head for what to do next. "Have you heard anything from Gordon?"

"Not yet. I've tried, but he's not responding." Concern filled John's voice through the comms, and Virgil couldn't blame him. Just those few simple words had Virgil turning his run into a sprint as his heart raced faster and faster.

"FAB, John. Keep on trying."

"FAB."

He hadn't landed TB2 that far away from the cave's entrance, but it seemed to get further away as Virgil ran towards it. When he eventually reached it, he didn't even slow down as he opened the roof of the Mole and climbed in. It hadn't even closed properly before Virgil was speeding out of the module and into the cave.

However, Virgil quickly realised one flaw in his plan. Before, when they had first reached the cave, only the entrance had collapsed. That meant that they didn't have to go far into the cave with the Mole before they had reached the explorers. Virgil didn't realise how many twists and turns the cave took until he was in a big machine that couldn't fit around tight bends.

Virgil couldn't help his anger as he hit the controls in front of him in frustration when he reached a tunnel that was too narrow for the mole to fit through.

"John, it's going to take me a bit of time to get to Gordon. I'm going to need to drill through some of the cave to reach him. Can you sent me the quickest course through to him?"

John was quiet for a moment as he mapped out the quickest route through the cave before he spoke again. "Sending it through now. There aren't many tunnels or caverns between you two, so the best way is to just dig pretty much straight in the direction of Gordon."

"FAB," Virgil replied as he brought up the course. Just as John had said, the route took him in pretty much in a straight line, and at the end of the line sat a small icon that indicated where his brother was. Virgil positioned the vehicle in that direction and started up the drill.

"Still haven't gotten through to him yet?"

"Negative. Although, from what I can read from his suit, his heartbeat seems steady."

Good. That was good. That would mean that Gordon couldn't have been too injured, if he was even injured at all. Virgil just had to hurry to keep it that way. He moved the Mole forward, and then he was drilling through the wall.

_I'm coming for you, Gordon._

* * *

He coughed as he breathed in the dust that was settling around him. The ground was scratchy against his cheek, and his eyelids felt heavy as he tried to open them.

Gordon blinked a few times and his vision came into focus. He was still in the cave, tied up and laying on the floor just like how the Hood had left him. He tried to look around, but it hurt to move and there was a weight on him preventing him from doing so. From what he could see it was apparent that the explosives had done their job at destroying the entrances into the cavern. They might have also done more than that, if the chunks of the cavern's walls that littered the floor was anything to go by.

The cave was losing integrity and it was probably only a matter of time before the whole thing came down on him.

He wanted to contact his brothers, to tell them about the situation or find out how close they were to digging him out of here, but he couldn't reach his wrist comm or the one in his sash. All he could do was lie there and wait for his brothers to come for him. He knew they would, he had no doubt about it, but he hoped that they would hurry. Not because he was worried about the cave collapsing any further, although that thought was at the back of his mind, but because he needed to warn them about the Hood before he got away.

Why would the Hood have even come here in the first place? Was there something in these caves that he wanted? Gordon couldn't have imagined what the Hood would want in a place like this. These were manmade caves, so there weren't any precious metals or anything like that hidden deep within.

Gordon assumed that it was the Hood's fault as to why International Rescue were called here in the first place. His explosives had probably sent the cave tumbling in and trapped the explorers, and was the apparent explosion that they had reported to have heard.

But what had he used them for? Surely he wouldn't have destroyed the caves _just_ for the purpose of getting IR involved. Knowing him, he was likely up to something and hadn't intended for Gordon and Virgil to show up. If it wasn't for the explorers, they wouldn't have. Trapping Gordon in here was probably not part of his initial plan. As he said, he only lured Gordon in here as a distraction so he could get out without any of them noticing. And Gordon was too stupid to realise it sooner.

All the questions that the Hood had brought with him sent Gordon's head spinning and he had to close his eyes against the dizzy feeling that washed over him. For just that moment, he was thankful that he was already lying on the ground, for he was sure that if he was upright he would have collapsed.

Now that his eyes were closed again he grew tired. He told himself that he needed to stay awake. He needed to tell Virgil about the Hood as soon as he came for him. He couldn't risk falling asleep.

Even though he told himself that, he still didn't open his eyes. He just needed a couple of seconds, and then he would be up. He would be awake and sitting and trying to get out of his shackles so that he was ready for when Virgil broke through the wall. Ready to find the Hood before he could get away.

He just needed a couple of moments to rest. Then he would be up.

* * *

Even though in that moment it felt like the slowest thing in the world, the Mole was actually a pretty fast drill. Virgil was thankful that Brains had made it so effective, but it still seemed to take forever for him to get through to Gordon. Virgil knew it was his impatience trying to get to him, and so he just took a deep breath to calm down a bit.

He knew that Gordon was okay, or as okay as they could read from his suit. John had given him updates throughout his journey in the cave, which Virgil was thankful for. It kept him from getting stuck inside his own head, trapped by the thoughts that something even worse had happened to Gordon in his time to get to him.

Eventually, Virgil reached the cavern that Gordon was in. He felt the drill of the Mole break through the wall and immediately slowed it down. He didn't want to drill too far as he didn't know where exactly Gordon was.

He slowly drove the Mole into the cavern until there was enough space for him to open the hatch and climb out. He immediately saw Gordon, a speck of yellow and blue amongst the destruction, and hurried towards him.

Gordon was laying on his side and had his eyes closed. He seemed unresponsive as Virgil kneeled down next to him and placed a hand on his arm.

Virgil frowned as he noticed that Gordon's arms were twisted around behind his back. Virgil leant over him, and found that they were tied together with metal chains.

_What had happened here?_

Virgil examined Gordon further, and saw that there were some large rocks covering his legs. The side of his face was also bruised, which was probably from a loose rock that fell and the reason as to why Gordon was unconscious.

Virgil reached over and carefully lifted the rocks off of Gordon's legs, and noticed that they were also tied together at the ankles.

Virgil took the laser off of his shoulder and turned it to the lowest setting. He carefully held it over the chains on Gordon's legs, and soon they broke apart. He did the same for the ones around his wrists, and once they were undone he carefully lowered Gordon onto his back.

Gordon stirred at the movement and his eyes fluttered open.

"Virgil?" He grumbled.

"Hey." Virgil moved so he was in Gordon's line of sight. "How you feeling?"

Gordon didn't say anything. Instead, his face twisted and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Gordon?" Virgil was growing concerned.

"There was something…" Gordon mumbled. His eyes had drifted past Virgil and he seemed to be thinking about something.

"Something?" Virgil frowned, confused himself.

Virgil was prepared to check Gordon over for a concussion, but then suddenly Gordon shot up and his hand tightly clung on to Virgil's arm. He quickly turned to Virgil, and Virgil almost flinched back at the wide-eyed look Gordon was giving him.

"The Hood."

"What?"

"The Hood. He was here. We need to stop him!"

Virgil's heart dropped at the mention of the villain's name, but he was still confused and was prepared to put it down to Gordon's concussion. "Gordon, you're not making any sense. What do you mean the Hood was here?"

"We don't have time to explain! We need to stop him!"

Gordon pushed past Virgil as he went to stand up, but he stumbled and Virgil had to quickly stand as well to stop Gordon from falling. Gordon's face was twisted in pain and he leant against Virgil.

"Gordon? What is it?" Virgil held onto Gordon and he looked down to see if there were any obvious injuries.

"My ankle." Virgil then realised that Gordon was putting all his weight on one leg as the other was lifted off the ground slightly. However, a moment later Gordon steeled himself as he stood up straight and turned towards the Mole. "But that doesn't matter right now. We have to _go_!"

He made to move past Virgil, but Virgil held onto him tightly and stopped him from going anywhere. Gordon sent him a glare, but he didn't struggle against Virgil.

"Gordon, I still don't understand."

"I know you don't, but we still need to go _now_. I promise I'll tell you everything on the way if we can just leave now!"

Virgil still wasn't sure. There was still a chance that Gordon had just been delirious because of a concussion, but the panicked look on his face said that he was sure that what he was saying was true. It also explained the chains…

Virgil knew that if he denied Gordon any further he would just to find his way back anyways, so instead he threw an arm around Gordon's waist.

"Okay, let's go."

Gordon seemed pleased that Virgil had finally given in to him, and they began to make their way back to the Mole. Virgil helped Gordon into the back seat and he hopped into the front. Thankfully, there was enough space in the cavern for him to turn the Mole around, which meant he didn't have to go backwards through the tunnel he'd made. He positioned the vehicle towards the hole, and headed through.

* * *

The way back out of the cave was much quicker than the way in as Virgil didn't need to dig his way through. As they made their way back, Gordon told him everything that happened once he entered the cave. He told him about the Hood and how he was the source of the cave collapsing, and about how he had tied Gordon up and used him as a distraction to get away.

When Gordon was done explaining, Virgil was quiet for a moment as he took it all in. Then, he contacted John. John needed to know in case the Hood was still nearby and he could find him. John immediately contacted the GDF, who informed them that they would do all they could to find the Hood, as well as what was in the cave that the Hood might have found of interest. Since then, it had been quiet on their end.

Currently, Virgil and Gordon were in TB2's med bay. Gordon was sat with an icepack against his face whilst Virgil bandaged up his ankle. Thankfully it was only a sprain, and Gordon didn't appear to have sustained any more injuries. At some point John had popped up and had told them the latest that he had found out from the GDF.

"Apparently, the caves were built right next to an abandoned lab. The lab was shut down several years ago for doing some shifty experiments," John explained. "When it was abandoned, a lot of the chemicals were left behind, and some of them are really hard to get a hold of. The GDF thinks that that's what the Hood went looking for. He probably used an explosive to get into the lab, and that's what caused the cave to collapse."

"Did the GDF manage to find him?" Gordon asked. He looked tired as he sat on one of the med bay's beds.

John looked solemn from where his little hologram sat at the end of the bed, and Virgil knew it wasn't good news.

"No, Gordon. They couldn't find any other vehicles in the vicinity, so he was probably using some sort of cloaking device, which was what he also must have used to hide their life signs in the cave. They'll keep on looking though, just in case. And they'll make sure he never comes back here again."

Gordon let out a deep sigh, but he didn't look defeated. Instead, he looked like he had been expecting that very outcome and was not surprised at what John said at all.

"We'll get him one day, Gordon." Virgil gave Gordon a smile as he went to put away the medical supplies he'd gotten out. Virgil wasn't even sure if he believed his own words, but one of the only things that made situations like these easier was the hope that the next time would be the last. Gordon gave him a small smile back, but a moment later it grew wider as he realised something.

"I guess a good thing to come out of this is that now I need someone to wait on me." Gordon gestured down to his now bandaged ankle. "I can't exactly do things myself now, can I?"

Virgil groaned and crossed his arms. "That's what I get for rescuing you?"

"You say it like you don't want to do it!"

"That's because I don't." Virgil began to make his way out of the med bay once he had secured everything away again. "Now get yourself comfy, I'm going to go start the ship up."

Virgil left the med bay and made his way into the cockpit, but not before he heard a yelled "_you know you want to do it!"_ Virgil shook his head as he sat down in the pilot's seat, but he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him.

He started to flip the switches on the console that would start the ship up, and as he did so he finally took a moment to think about this whole rescue. The rescue had him raising questions from the start. He shouldn't have sent Gordon into the cave alone, they should have gone together. If they did, then they might have managed to stop the Hood from getting away.

Virgil sighed as he felt the ship vibrate under him, preparing itself for a take-off. He leant back in his seat and looked out of the window to the caves in front of him. If he was honest, it really was annoying that the Hood had managed to get away from them once again, but he couldn't be too disappointed about the outcome of this situation. If it meant that Gordon was safe in TB2 and not as injured as he could have been, Virgil couldn't find it in himself to be too upset at the Hood getting away.

Virgil sat back up again in his seat and grabbed the controls in front of him, readying the ship to launch. Sure, it sucked that the Hood had been so close and evaded their capture _again_, Virgil couldn't deny that, but he had no doubt that they would come across him again in the future. And next time, Virgil would be ready. He would not let the Hood hurt another member of his family again, and it was this thought that Virgil carried with him as he set off into the sky again and headed home.


End file.
